No. 2 Wayne State forced 24 attack errors, holding Bemidji State to a .093 hitting percentage as the Wildcats posted a senior night Northern Sun Conference volleyball win over the Beavers Friday evening at Rice Arena in Wayne by scores of 25-20, 25-22, 25-15. WSC improves to 20-1 on the year and is a perfect 12-0 in the NSIC while Bemidji State drops to 14-6 and 6-6 in the conference.
WSC built a big lead midway through the first set, then fought off a Beaver rally and closed with a 25-20 set win.
With the Wildcats in front 14-6, BSU rattled off eight straight points to tie the set at 14-14. A block by Mattie Kamery and Chloe Hanel, followed by a Kamery service ace, put the Wildcats ahead for good at 16-14.
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Following a BSU point, the Wildcats used a Beaver service error, an attack error and a Delaney Miller kill to grab a 19-15 lead and finish with a 25-20 set win.
Miller had six kills in the opening set for the Wildcats while Hanel recorded four.
Wayne State needed to rally in the second set thanks to strong defense, forcing 13 Bemidji State attack errors with four Wildcat blocks, to post a 25-22 set win.
After scoring the first two points of the set, WSC saw Bemidji State reel off six straight points to force an early Wildcat timeout.
BSU pushed the lead to 14-9 when the Wildcats began to rally. Still trailing 17-14, WSC used a kill from Hanel and a solo block by Mia Berg, followed by two BSU attack errors, for an 18-17 lead.
After the Beavers rallied for a short-lived 20-19 advantage, Wayne State scored the next five points to grab a 24-20 lead and ended with a 25-22 set win.
WSC had just eight kills in the set, with Channatee Robles recording three, but 13 points were scored on Beaver errors that included four blocks with three coming from Berg.
The Wildcats put together their best hitting set of the night in the third with 14 kills and a .303 attack percentage to complete the sweep with a 25-15 win.
Hanel had five kills and three service aces to pace the Wildcats in the third set. Berg added three kills while Miller, Kamery and Robles each had two.
For the match, Wayne State hit .161 with 37 kills and 18 errors on 118 attacks while BSU was held to a .093 percentage with 34 kills, 24 errors and 107 attacks. The Wildcats had seven service aces and just four errors with BSU limited to one ace with seven errors. Bemidji State held a 55-48 edge in digs and had one more block than WSC, 8-7.
Hanel had 10 kills and three service aces for the Wildcats. Miller and Berg each added eight kills with Berg producing four blocks. Kamery tied a career high with five blocks.
Junior libero Anna Borner had 11 digs and two aces while defensive specialist Reese Johnson also had 11 digs.
The Wildcats are home again Saturday afternoon, hosting No. 17 Minnesota Duluth in NSIC action beginning at 1 p.m. in Rice Arena.
